Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Except when they’re not. What is objective truth? The definition of objective truth is as follows: the state or quality of being true even outside of a subject's individual biases, interpretations, feelings, and imaginings. It means that things that are objective have only one correct definition. You can have opinions on subjective matters. For instance, your favorite ice cream flavor is a matter of subjectivity. Feel free to disagree with somebody when they say French Vanilla Cappuccino Malts from UDF are the best things on the menu. But objective truths, on the other hand, are true regardless of how you feel about them.

This relativism can be easily seen in the world today with many matters of objectivity. It’s a very common thought process that opinions are all valid and should be respected, and often not even argued. Let’s go back to the early Christians. Years ago, most people got the whole objective truth thing. Early Christians were put to death on a regular basis for refusing to deny things they understood to be objective truths. For example, from a few years after the death of Christ, and for hundreds of years later, documents were written (and later found) which stated Christians were arrested during a private gathering, and when questioned, admitted to “cannibalistic acts.” The early Christians realized that “This is my body” and “Truly, I tell you, unless you gnaw on the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” were not figurative – that Jesus was serious. And many died for it. Some documented cases of Christians being put to death include the exchanges between the two parties as well. Usually something along the lines of “Simply state you do not believe in _______ and you will be free to go.” (this blank could be a number of things from belief in Christ in general to a specific belief regarding Christianity.) Time and time again the response was a no. They understood their beliefs to be true. Truth was non-negotiable. Years and years down the road this started to degenerate. The papacy, as the years went on, became more and more a preserver of truth. This led to a “pope-syndrome” of sorts within the entire Christian community (which I remind you, aside from a few small heretical groups, was one Church until the 1500s) where eventually people began responding to things they didn’t understand by essentially saying “Well screw it, then I’ll be pope and do what I want!” A few times there were multiple people who claimed they were the new pope (which never did work out very well). This led to many a facepalm and headache for those in the Church who had to deal with it. Eventually, however, the snowball started rolling with the schismatic movement that started with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. The papacy, which traced directly back to St. Peter, was left behind. 7 books that conflicted with new reformation values were removed from the Bible. The snowball picked up speed, and the notion of pursuing gained credence while Christ’s words of prayer for unity gained less and less. Within a few decades after the Reformation thousands of schisms led to separate denominations being formed. Today, close to 35,000 separate protestant denominations exist. “Church Hopping” has become an endemic. Disagreements, personal preferences, and countless other reasons often led to the abandonment of a denomination/church and the formation of a new one to fit the individual’s needs. The Catholic Church stands as a beacon of unaltered truth in an increasingly relative world, where even objectivity has been replaced with subjective stances. No, the Church is not perfect, as any organization run by man will not be. But through the Papacy, which traces back in successors to St. Peter, the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Church), which preserves 2000 years of Church teaching, and the Dogma (unchanging principles of the Church) which have remained unchanged since their origins, the Church embraces the objective truths it was founded upon wholeheartedly.

There are places for opinions within Catholicism (I refer to you to the hundreds of religious orders, the different forms of celebrating Mass, the tens of thousands of ways to pray, etc.), but opinions do not apply to truth. When it comes to objectivity, your opinion bears no weight. It doesn’t matter what you think. More often than ever Catholics are becoming “Shopping-Cart Catholics” who pick and choose which aspects of the Church they wish to follow. Often in comments on various blogs/articles I’ve read people will say something along the lines of “I’m Catholic, but I don’t believe in Church teaching A, B, C, or D” sometimes even the Eucharist will be the subject of disagreement. If you define yourself as Catholic, remember it is just that: a definition. It is a title that bears weight and has consequences that go along with it. You don’t get to pick the dogmatic Church teachings you choose to accept and which you choose to reject. (And I take this time to remind everybody that when it comes to things in the Church that are purely traditional and not dogmatic, such as priests being able to marry, you are free to have opinions.) Remember that Catholicism is a package deal. By choosing it, you choose not just the easy parts, but the difficult teachings as well. We are calling the world to a higher standard of living and must therefore exemplify this discipline of following Church teachings in our own lives if we wish to effectively evangelize. With 35,000 types of Christianity all claiming truth, it is important for us to go back to the very beginning and seek complete truth.